Pepper Sprayed

In the video, the deputy inspector, Anthony Bologna, looked as if he were spraying cockroaches. When asked about the matter, the chief spokesman for the Police Department, Paul J. Browne, said it had been used "appropriately."

In his statement, he also said, "Pepper spray was used once after individuals confronted officers and tried to prevent them from deploying a mesh barrier -- something that was edited out or otherwise not captured in the video."
Other videos have surfaced, and it is hard to square the events described by Mr. Browne with what they show.

Earlier in the week, after a different encounter, Mr. Browne said a man had been arrested "for jumping a police barrier and resisting arrest." A sequence of photographs published on the City Room blog of The New York Times showed precisely the opposite: a deputy inspector tried to pull a protester over a barrier, and then he jumped over to grab the protester.

Fallows has a compendium of responses, including a second incident. I urge you to check all of them out. I also urge you adopt the #cowardcop hashtag in tribute.

My contribution shall be less tangible. It basically involves me taking this oppurtunity to promote a band a like. Above you'll find The Lisps who are, like so much, straight out of Brooklyn, most appropriately, singing their new hit "Pepper Spray." Title aside, something about the first verse is oddly, and unfortunately, appropriate. We really need a mash-up with the protest video.